Review: IT Chapter Two is overlong, but Pennywise will still haunt your dreams

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  Young Mike Hanson (Chosen Jacobs). [credit: YouTube/Warner Bros. ]

The Losers Club is all grown up and back in Derry for a final confrontation with Pennywise in IT Chapter Two, Director Andy Muschietti's follow up to his 2017 box office hit, IT. Chapter Two isn't quite as good as its phenomenal predecessor, but it's still good, scary fun. And together, the two films comprise a deeply satisfying full adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling novel.

(Some spoilers for the 1986 novel, the first film, and IT: Chapter Two, but no major reveals from IT: Chapter Two)

Confession: IT was the book that turned me on to Stephen King, convincing me that the horror novelist's work wasn't just about monsters, gore, and jump scares. It scared the crap out of my 20-something self; I slept with a light on for two nights after finishing it. I can't recall any other book that had that effect on me. Somehow it tapped into my most deep-seated fears from childhood-fears I wasn't aware I still possessed on some long-submerged level. The best of King plumbs the psychological depths of the best and worst of human nature, and IT is definitely one of his best.

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